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Straits the ship arrived in Souda Bay,
Crete on 12 March and moored on the
east end of Marathi Pier, starboard-sideto,
at K14; see Figure 1. The Advance
Party ensured there was adequate space
between the quay wall and the ship’s
skin by breasting out the ship nearly 20
ft. using a combination of barges and Yokahoma
fenders. Breasting out the ship
allowed for ample space to extract and
install the hub/cofferdam combo without
the danger of exceeding the cranes reach
and lifting capacity. Additionally, in anticipation
of the 48Klbs CPP Hub and
Figure 2
Cofferdam combo heavy lift, great care
was given to crane placement and ship
position relative to one another to ensure
the lifting capability of the 200Klbs
capacity crane was not exceeded.
Upon arrival and shifting colors, the
vessel was immediately unloaded. Its
entire cargo, including both the NRFI
and RFI blades (10 total), were removed
from the ship and staged appropriately
on the pier. The dive side was set up
and fully geared for 24/7 operations; as
seen in Figure 2 , several
tents were erected to protect
critical gear, all diving
support systems were
made functional, support
service ordered, to include,
external lighting for night
time operations, back up
air and power sources, etc.
Lastly, Phoenix dive team
integrated into the repair
effort. A total of three 10
man dive teams working
Figure 1
on a 24/7 basis was the
corps work ethic. More
specifically, it was decided
that each dive team would work a 10
hour day with 1 hour overlap
with each on-coming
and off-going shift. This
work schedule supported
8 hours of in-water diving
and allowed the teams set
up and break down periods
with minimal work
stoppages between shifts.
The first Souda Bay
dive was conducted on 13
March following
pier lay-down completion
at approximately 0100L, the
evening of the ship’s arrival
in port. The team immediately
went to work successfully
removing 1A Blade port
cover and installed the hub
davit that would be used to
help remove the rope guard.
At the same time, both port
and starboard rigging beams
installation started, as well Figure 4
as the de-oiling operation of
the hub and shaft; approximately 1100
Gallons of oil required removal. Unfortunately,
none of these events went according
to plan. For instance, the rigging
beams had to be removed after being
fully installed because the Delrin spacers
of both beams were not flush to the
hull due to interferences with the strut
pads. Both beams were removed, the
Delrin spacers tailored to fit and then reinstalled.
As seen in figure 3, the rigging
beams are attached directly above the
hub and are attached to the ship’s hull by
two U-bolts in the 8 inch lifting tunnels.
It proved to be very challenging
to fully de-oil the ship’s CPP system
through the damaged hub. The seals on
the hub were completely
compromised making isolation
for the surrounding
water extremely challenging.
To mitigate oil leakage
from the damaged hub Souda
Bay Oil Spill Response
Team, led by LT Johnathan
“Chris” White, was called
into action to fully contain
and clean up any oil spilled.
In an attempt to mitigate oil
Figure 3
loss and promote collection
of the oil, the PA system
was plugged with expansion
bolts. Also, a 13’ x 11’ x 1.5’ Inverted
Drip Pan (IDP) System was designed,
fabricated, and installed directly over the
CPP Hub to collect oil. As seen in figure
4, this pan, constructed of mild steel, was
essentially a drip pan turned upside down
and suspended from a series of chainfalls
directly attached to the belly bands
that were surrounding the hull of the ship.
This prevented nearly 500 gallons of oil
release into the surrounding environment.
January 2016 18